Winners and Christmas Quilt..

I hope you all had a WONDERFUL Christmas!! I Hope you took a much needed break, spent time with family and friends and ate LOTS!! 

A late Christmas present to TWO lucky winners (No. 192 & No 231) of my Pat Bravo Giveaway.

Katie B. said...

Beautiful fabric! Your quilt pattern is gorgeous.
My favorite flower: Hydrangea

December 21, 2010 5:34 AM 

Trisha said...

I am a follower! :) And that fabric is so gorgeous!!

December 21, 2010 10:51 AM 

AND.....I thought i would show you.. the pressie I made for my Mum..( a HUGE Jim Shore fan) This more 'traditional style' Quilt i made VERY quickly... well, i actually left it til the last minute! So it was made in a few days..

..... I'll tell you more about it NEXT post!!!

 Enjoy your holidays!! xx

New Quilt Pattern and Pat Bravo Giveaway!!

The Lovely Pat Bravo for Art Gallery Fabrics asked me a few weeks ago if i would like to host a giveaway on my blog?? What perfect timing!!! I had just finished my latest quilt 'Edens Garden" made from all of her Fabric in the Paradise collection.

Now for those of you who haven't tries Pat's fabric, its printed on a silky soft Premium cotton and you really can 'feel the difference'. Its just beautiful to work with, and has a gorgeous drape.

My 'Eden's Garden quilt measures 69" x 84" (175 x 213cm). It uses 12 of her Fat Quarters and i bought extra yardage for borders and backing.

The flower blocks are all machine pieced using the traditional corner to corner curved piecing technique. Now some of you may be nervous trying curves... but trust me.. its WAY easier than it looks!!

This quilt was fun to sew, the only problem i have now is..... I have seen Pats NEW released lines and I want to make this quilt in every one of them!!

BAZAAR style, is a Moroccan line with accents in fashion. COQUETTE, is a beautiful lavish floral and BOHEMIAN SOUL, is so 70's and so relaxed!! These all ship next year in Feb, March and April... so i spose i still a have time!! Pat also has released her fabulous 'blenders' line LACE ELEMENTS which will be great for a multitude of projects and as the background fabric for this quilt. You can dream over more pics of these collections HERE and Pat's site or you can purchase them directly from HERE....

For Our Giveaway, Pat has so kindly offered 2 FULL Fat Quarter bundles of fabric with 18 Fat Quarters in each!! Each bundle includes all 18 prints in the Paradise collection.

 There will be 2 lucky winners, each winner will win..... a FULL Paradise collection bundle AND my New 'Eden's Garden' Quilt Pattern.

You will have 3 chances to enter :- 

1) Leave a comment on this post telling me.... your favourite FLOWER!

2) If you are a follower of my blog (or a new follower) Leave another comment

3) If you subscribe to Pat's blog (or new subscriber) Leave another comment

This giveaway will be open til just after Christmas and the winner will be drawn randomly on December 26th.

My Quilt Pattern will also be offered at 20 % off while the giveaway is on... You can purchase the pattern HERE

Thank you so much Pat for an amazing collection. You fabrics are a dream to sew!!

Good luck everyone!! xx 

Winner Winner....

Thank you so much...all 651 of you!! Who entered my Giveaway... 

Congratulations to No. 426

patterns by figgys said...
Love: "Curlicue Crush" gorgeous!
shelly@patternsbyfiggys.com
December 14, 2010 6:13 PM 
Ive sent you an email xx

And for all of my lucky readers...

  Remember the generosity of Pat Bravo.... from my last post??  Pop back on the
20th Dec for our Giveaway ...

See you on the 20th!! xx

Giveaway DAY!! $50 Pink Chalk Fabric Voucher and ANY 4 Chasing Cottons Quilt Patterns!!

This is my first time participating in the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway DAY!!!....What a perfect time of year to host a massive blogging Giveaway! We all know Giving is better than receiving.....

 So what I'm Giving....

Choose ANY 4 Patterns from my SHOP....

AND

PINK CHALK fabrics 

How to enter.... Just leave a comment telling me your Favourite Chasing Cottons Pattern!!

 (make sure you include your email address so i can find you, if you win!)

'Curlicue Crush'

'Sand Castles'

'Diamond Bouquet'

'Rolling Meadows'

'Birds of Paradise'

'Star Jewels'

The Giveaway will stay open until 17th December... i will choose a winner by Random.org! 

Giveaway Now Closed!!

Want another Giveaway???.... Tis the season.... 

Pop back to my blog on the 20th Dec...

 The lovely Pat Bravo for Art Gallery Fabrics contacted me...and would love to give away a

 Fat Quarter bundle of her "Paradise collection' 

to coincide with the Release of my Latest Pattern... 'Eden's Garden' 

So come back on the 20th December for all the details....

Until then.... Enjoy the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway....and GOOD LUCK!! xx

Kids Handmade Christmas Decorations

Its always fun to do some sort of Christmas craft with the kids. Whether its baking, making cards, decorations or Ginger bread houses...(btw, i need a good recipe for them) they just love getting in the Christmas Spirit. This year, I saw in the Dec10 issue,

 Home Beautiful magazine...

  Ceramic Decorations!

 They are so so easy and definitely kid friendly!! 

We made ours for gifts for loving Grandparents and friends and had a few left over to decorate our tree.

Wanna make some??

  YOU NEED : 

White Air Dry Clay (Spotlight $14.95 kg), Cookie Cutters,

 Lettering Stamps (Kikki K or Riot Craft), Ribbon....

and a few household items...Baking paper, Rolling pin, Bamboo Skewer etc..

TO MAKE - 

Roll out clay onto baking paper.. 

Use your cookie cutters to cut shape. 

Use your Stamps to make words or message. 

Use a bamboo skewer to make a hole big enough for ribbon.

 Smooth out edges...and allow to dry (bout 24hrs)

Tie Ribbon...

and....YOUR DONE!! 

The kids had alot of fun! 

We made about 15 decorations and used half the clay...to give you an idea how far it goes. 

Instead of wrapping them up, I think i will use them as a hanging tag on my Christmas packages this year!

I think they will add a nice touch,  they make the Perfect Label AND a  Handmade Pressie to cherish and keep. xx

Christmas hot pads...gift idea??

Last week i thought i would add some Christmas cheer to our kitchen/dinner table and make some Christmas Hot Pads...

I have never made them before... even though they are so Quick Easy and really just Mini quilts with extra insulation... For those of you who aren't sure how to make em.... here's a few steps... And for those of you that are experienced quilters... well, just look at the pictures!!

Step 1 - Make four little blocks...any style, and size... and col... Mine were 8.5" finished size... I was going for 10 inch...but they just seemed WAY too big!

Step 2 - Baste - Make four mini quilt sandwiches... if your a little unsure you can read about basting a LARGE quilt HERE.. for these the techniques are all the same ... just tiny and QUICK! and of course an extra layer of Insulation.

I spend a good half an hour lamenting over what way i should add my extra layer of Insul - bright...only to find when i actually opened my roll...it was written in BOLD writing... you put the shiny side of the Insul-bright lining up... and have it closest to the top!! WHO knew to actually read the instructions!! 

For this layer...i used Insul-bright. For those of you in Australia you can buy some HERE... It is a bit crinkly/ noisy... I have never used insul-bright or any other brand before... so I'm not sure if they are all noisy....???

Step 3 - Quilt your little quilts...I recommend using a walking foot... Its quite thick and i think a regular foot wouldn't quite work... and I just free motion quilted a design on two of them. Then for the other two I used my walking foot and quilted 1/4" off seam line..  

 Step 4 - Bind your little quilt/ hot pad... I have never bound my quilts by machine before... i usually sew    them on first and then hand sew the back... but i saw a great Tutorial HERE on how to machine bind your quilts... so i thought i would give it a go... it worked great...and so so quick and easy! I still prefer the exactness of hand sewing the binding onto the back... but for a project like this.. its genius!


....oh and for the loop... i just used ribbon...I sewed it into the seam of the binding on the top... then as the binding flipped over to the back.. i attached it again at the back... so its all nice and neat at tightly secure.

We've had a fun week this week... We put up our tree... Made some cute decorations (ill show you in a couple days), Decorated our house... We have been to a few Christmas activities...our kids eagerly look out the window each night to see how many houses in the neighbourhood have put up lights.... its all starting... and at the Johnson house..." Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!"